Life is all about choices and attitude. Make the right choices, keep a positive attitude-- and you will find JOY through all of your ups and downs. Hope you enjoy my thoughts!

HEADER INFORMATION

My JOYFUL REFLECTIONS header picture is a picture taken on 10/20/16 on our visit to the Biltmore House and Gardens in Asheville, North Carolina. I had never seen so many different colors of Poinsettias before... These HOT Pink ones were gorgeous.

Monday, July 30, 2012

Here's my final group of pictures of our 19 varieties of LILIES in our yard this year. If you missed any of these 5 blog posts, click HERE. Hope you enjoy this final group!

The picture above is one of our little tiger lilies... I LOVE these little lilies... This one is named is Black Beauty... Pretty, isn't it? Be sure to click on all of the pictures in order to see them larger.

Several of you have asked to see 'group' pictures of the lilies. That is never easy to do since the lilies (and daylilies) all bloom at different times... That is a good thing though since we enjoy lily blooms for a couple of months.. When one variety quits blooming, another takes its place. SO---that is why it is hard to get a 'group' picture of all of them!!!!

The picture above is of our 'road flowerbed' ---and you can see lilies, daylilies and roses all blooming.

Golden Splendor Lily

This beauty is named Golden Splendor... It is such a beautiful lily.

Gold Band Lily

The last lily to bloom in our yard (there are only a couple of blooms left in this one), named Gold Band... We enjoyed it for about 3 weeks... Someone asked how long lilies bloom... I think most of the buds will stay pretty for about 2-3 weeks....(Daylilies are different in that each blossom only blooms for ONE day.. BUT--there are usually lots and lots of blossoms --which keep the plant blooming for several weeks.)

This is another view of several of the lilies in bloom in our side flowerbed... As I have previously said, most of our lilies are planted in this long bed ---and in the road and the lamppost beds.

Trebbiano Lily

This little beauty is named Trebbiano. As you can tell, this lily is very pale yellow (almost white) in color... This lily is located in the side flowerbed (not far from our swing)...

Sarina Lily

And this lily is named Sarina. George took this photo --and this lily was one of several varieties in our lamppost flowerbed. Yellow is one of my favorite colors this time of year, and this one with its spots is quite unique.

Garden Pleasure Lily AND Touching Lily

Here is a picture showing you how many lilies were blooming at the same time in our road flowerbed... Aren't they just gorgeous? That is Touching on the right and Garden Pleasure on the left....

Garden Pleasure Lily

Finally, besides Pink Perfection and Touching and Gold Band, here is the 4th group of lilies in the road flowerbed that bloomed and bloomed and bloomed this year... This one is Garden Pleasure---and a pleasure it was!!!! As I said above, a couple of Gold Band lilies are all that are left in our yard now... We'll have to wait 'til next year to see all of these again....

Hope you enjoyed seeing our lilies this year. It's hard for me to pick a favorite... I loved Lollypop and Montenegro --since they were some of the early bloomers. But there are others I love --such as this one (Garden Pleasure) and also Touching... Overall though, I guess, if I had to pick a 2012 favorite lily, I would choose Pink Perfection... After looking at all of the lily posts, you need to pick a favorite also....

Have a wonderful Monday. We are going to see the sunflowers at Biltmore.... Hope they are gorgeous like they were last year when we were there.

Hope you are watching the OLYMPICS... They are great... so many wonderful, hard-working athletes. SO proud of them!!!!

Monday, July 16, 2012

Our Lilies have really been showing off this summer. We've had 19 different varieties ---and the good news is that most of them have bloomed and bloomed and bloomed... You can see other Lilies which I have posted so far by going to my sidebar and scrolling down to Lilies 2012. Click there --and you can see more (if you missed them the first time)...

One of my favorite Lilies this year (which bloomed earlier and is long gone now) was Pink Perfection... See it by clicking HERE. I didn't know that other upcoming ones would be as pretty or prettier... But they have been!! It has been a great year, although it is almost all over now.... Luckily, we still have lots of beautiful Roses--which will bloom until late Fall.

Today I'll share more pictures of our Lilies... Hope you enjoy them. I just wish you could have been here to enjoy them in person!!!!! Above is a photo showing you all of the color we have had in our side flowerbed... Our Lilies are mostly in this bed and in the roadside bed in the front. Below are more. Be sure to click on the photos to see them larger.

Treffer Lily

Buena Vista Lily

Regale Lily

Tinos Lily (photo taken by George)

We had many beautiful Lilies in our Lamppost Flowerbed

Touching Lily

And finally, here is another favorite of mine... This beauty (called Touching) really bloomed and bloomed for us this summer.... Isn't it awesome???

Hope you enjoyed seeing more of our Lilies in our yard... Which one(s) do you like??? I have at least one more post showing our Lilies, along with more Rose posts and more Daylily posts..

Monday, June 25, 2012

Gosh---it's hard for me to say which of our perennial flowers I love the most... I love all of them (Daffodils, Crocuses, Hyacinths, Tulips, Irises, etc.) ----but the Lilies and Daylilies are WAY at the top of my list, especially the Lilies. Right now, we have 18 different varieties of Lilies which have bloomed so far, with more to come!!!!

I have already shown you 3 of the lily varieties (click HERE to see them)---so today, I'll show you more of these beauties, all of which have bloomed in our yard this past month.. The picture above is a favorite this year (PINK PERFECTION) ---not only because of its beauty, but because this lily is HUGE and TALL.... Be sure to click on the pictures to see them larger.

George is about 6'4"----and the PINK PERFECTION lilies are taller than he is.... These lilies are in the road flowerbed in the front... They are awesome!!!

Here's a close-up of PINK PERFECTION. Aren't they beautiful?

Here's a reddish lily named RED TWINKLE... This lily is located on the side flowerbed (where many of our lilies are located). I love the color of this one.

Here is a picture of several different lily (and daylily) varieties. These are in the side flowerbed in the back (near the deck).... I love sitting on the deck admiring these beauties...

One of the lilies you can see in the previous picture is named MADONNA (the white ones pictured above). We have many of these lilies and they smell incredible!!!!

Butterflies love lilies... This little butterfly was going from one FREEDOM GLOW lily to the next...

This is another picture of all of the lilies (and daylilies) in our side flowerbed. This is looking toward the front yard... This is the view I can see from the kitchen window... That makes washing dishes much nicer!!!!!!ha

And, finally here is another pink lily (named PINK LEMONADE) that is very pretty. George took this one ---after we had had some rain... I always love seeing the raindrops on our flowers...

Hope you enjoyed seeing today's post showing more of our beautiful Lilies... I'll do a post soon showing some of our Daylilies and more of our Lilies...

Thanks so much for all of the well-wishes we received (Friday's Blog--click HERE if you missed it). We had a fabulous weekend celebrating our 11th anniversary on Saturday. As you can imagine, we took TONS of photos ---so that will be coming up soon!!!! Hope you had as great a weekend as we did. Thanks again!!

Friday, June 1, 2012

WOW---here it is June 1st!!! How can that be????? Now that Summer is here (unofficially), I will say that, even though it passed by quickly, we did have a gorgeous spring this year. I have shared many of our beautiful flowers with you (crocus, hyacinths, daffodils, tulips, irises--- plus more including our ROSES). The pansies are still blooming but will be gone if it stays HOT for much longer. The roses will be with us until late Fall.

But now our biggest bloomers are our lilies and daylilies. Most of the roses have finished blooming their first batch ---and will start a 2nd batch soon. George and I have both been very busy lately working in the yard. We enjoy it ---although working in extreme heat is not much fun! We finally have everything looking pretty good ---after weeding and weeding... Of course though, those pesky weeds do have a habit of reappearing! SO--weeding is an ongoing process.

Today, in order to do something a little different, I invite you on a
short tour of our yard. All of my photos today were taken either on May 27th or May 28th. Be sure to click on them to enlarge them.

First though, you need to sit on our deck and relax a
minute. I'll furnish some cold lemonade!!!!! Let's just TALK....

Freedom's Glow Lilies

OKAY---time for the tour!!!!! Wasn't that lemonade good????? Our first stop is on the 'upper' side of the house where many lilies are planted... Some of them are blooming (picture above) ---but there are many more to bloom. It's nice to sit on the deck and smell and enjoy all of the lilies!!!

The Upper side of our home

Next we will walk along the rock sidewalk noticing other lilies --either blooming or about to bloom. When I talk about seeing this beauty from the kitchen window, this is where that flowerbed is. I weeded this big bed (going all along the length of our home) last weekend... The Chipmunks love to tunnel in this bed --and eat the flower bulbs.... Darn those cute little critters!!!

Our ground covers (Periwinkle and English Ivy) and several gorgeous Hostas

Now we are in the front yard ---on the upper side. We have quite a bit of ground cover in certain places around the yard. It has taken this ground cover several years to get thick enough to 'eat' the weeds!!!! We love it---and it helps with the mowing!!!

Our Home --taken from the street

Here is a picture taken from the road ---looking 'through' our road flowerbed toward the house. Sometime, I'll share some before and after photos of how this flowerbed has evolved... Those red lilies are our Montenegro Lilies. They have been gorgeous this spring. Behind the lilies are some Veteran's Honor Roses (also red in color).

Our front yard ---looking toward the road

I took this photo from the other direction. I was standing near the garage --looking out toward the road. You can get a better view of the road flowerbed. Many of you remember when George built that bed. We did it for the same reason we have so many container roses----to have a sunny spot in our mostly shady yard!!!! Roses need SUN!!!!

Small flowerbed along the rock sidewalk

Now we are walking back around the sidewalk toward the back deck. This little bed along the house side of the rock sidewalk has been a 'work in progress' since we bought the house in 2002. For several years, I planted Impatiens along here every spring.... Then, one year, the rabbit (or more than one) kept eating the Impatiens.... I tried again the next year, and the rabbits came back and did it again... SO--I had to come up with Plan B!!!!! Dad Adams gave us more of his Autumn Joy Sedum (we have it in other places around the yard), so I separated it and planted it along this area. It has done well---and causes me no trouble at all. Last year, I added more Hosta between some of the Sedum....

Autumn Joy Sedum and Hosta

Here's another picture (closer) of some of the Autumn Joy Sedum and Hosta in that little flowerbed. Both are doing well---and take very little --if any---care or upkeep!!!! I recommend Autumn Joy Sedum if you want some plants that are easy to grow and maintain.

More of our back deck

Finally, we are back to where we started!!!!! Hope you enjoyed the little tour. We didn't go to the 'lower' side of the yard since there's nothing much there now except for our big woodpile and compost... Can't say that that is worth showing off!!!!! ha

WELL---now that we are back to the deck, George and I invite you to 'break bread' with us!!!!! Do you prefer burgers or steaks or chicken????? George can cook a mean steak on the grill... I KNOW ---since he made me one on Memorial Day evening... YUM!!!!

NOW---take me on a tour of your home. I learn so much from all of you bloggers!!!!! Thanks for visiting today -and you sincerely are invited to visit us if you are ever in Beautiful Tennessee...

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

We go to the beach every year around the first of May... Each year, when we get back home, we are always 'anxious' about what we'll find in our yard... AND---depending upon the year and the weather, every year is different from the previous ones. This year was no exception.

Even when we left FOR the beach, there were lots of Roses already blooming. It was hard to leave the yard---but we 'forced' ourselves.. ha.... BUT---coming home was even more awesome!!! Not only were the Roses blooming, but also lots of the Lilies and even a Daylily were all blooming.

Today I'll share a little of what we found when we got home from the beach on Saturday, May 12. Hope you enjoy seeing more of the beauty in our yard! Be sure and click on the pictures to see them larger. The first two pictures were taken on May 3 --before we left on our trip. All of the rest of the pictures were taken on May 12 when we returned.

This picture was taken from the side, looking across the driveway at two of our Rose beds. Can you imagine how hard it was for us to leave all of this beauty???? Luckily though, it was still there for us when we got home!

This is what met us when we drove into the yard that day. These gorgeous lilies are named Montenegro and the roses in the background are named Veteran's Honor.

Aren't these lilies pretty? They bloomed for us ---when we came home on the 12th. They are appropriately named Lollypop.

This picture was taken of one of our round flowerbeds in front. This one is the middle bed --and it's full of lilies and pansies... The names of the lilies in this picture are Juanita.

We even have one set of daylilies blooming already. This one is named Wild Horses.

This bed (near the front road) is full of color now... The irises are mostly bloomed out ---but the roses and lilies are really showing off. All of those red roses (Veteran's Honor) are on ONE bush--believe it or not!!!!! The roses on the right are named Double Delight, and the yellow roses are named Welcome Home.

Finally, here is one of my all-time favorite roses, named Peppermint Splash. This one had not bloomed until we returned from our trip. Isn't it beautiful?

Hope you enjoyed seeing our flowers today!!!!! AND--I also hope that you have a fabulous day!!!!!